Shropshire Star

Shropshire Council defends its gender pay record

Shropshire Council has insisted its gender pay gap does not reflect reality after it was revealed as the biggest in the Midlands and 12th biggest in the country.

Published

Data submitted to the government's gender pay gap service from 304 local authorities show female employees are paid on average 7.1 per cent less than male colleagues, based on mean earnings.

But Shropshire Council's figure was almost three times that, at 20.8 per cent. This was calculated on the average hourly rate of each non-school employee, both full time and part time.

The council released its data last week along with a statement saying the difference was down to more women being employed in typically lower paid jobs like cleaning and catering.

But this has now been labelled "a list of excuses" after comparisons were drawn with other authorities.

Shropshire has a higher gender pay gap than any of its neighbouring authorities, including Powys and Telford & Wrekin. It was also the second biggest gap among the UK's unitary authorities.

Andy Boddington, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow North and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "Paying women one fifth less is not good enough for the second decade of the twenty-first century.

"The real problem is that many women can’t access higher grade jobs because they find progress blocked. Too often they don’t get considered for better paid roles, and because they don’t get the same chances as men, they lose the aspiration to apply for the higher paid jobs. It is the age old vicious circle.

"The council’s disgraceful press release is nothing other than a list of excuses to justify a truly abominable performance on equality by the council."

'Misleading'

Clive Wright, Shropshire Council’s chief executive, said staff were the council's "most important asset" and the pay gap figure was misleading due to the wide range in job roles.

He said: "The current Gender Pay Gap measures are much too crude and do not show what is really going on in terms of fair and equal employment in organisations such as Shropshire Council, that has many and various responsibilities.

"Shropshire Council delivers over 150 different services and each of these is balanced in terms of pay, terms and conditions, but not surprisingly some professions and/or activities pay more than others.

"In fact, the council has more women in its higher paid grades, but because more women than men tend to choose to work in, for example, cleaning and catering, the overall figure is distorted."

Meanwhile the gender pay gap at Powys Council was 10.7 per cent, meaning the authority ranked 90th out of the 304 councils whose figures were available on the government website.

Mark Evans, acting director of resources, said Powys Council was "committed" to closing the gap and acknowledged there was more to be done.

He added: "We believe in job opportunities for everybody regardless of gender, and will challenge ourselves to be more inclusive as a public organisation. We want to create a truly inclusive culture and will be honest about the issues we and others face in our day to day work."

Telford & Wrekin Council's pay gap, while still in favour of men, was closer to the national average at 7.9 per cent, coming in 144th.